Although Wei Zheng also served as the battalion commander of the Musket Battalion, the fact that the musket battalion actually fell on military advisor Zhou Shuyuan.

Because, among all the officers of the Tiger and Leopard Army, only Zhou Shuyuan has truly contacted the official arms unit and knows what kind of soldiers can become a qualified musketeer.

However, more than 300 musketeers who formed the musket battalion were found, but the equipment that determined whether the musket battalion could form combat effectiveness became far away.

Although the Tiger and Leopard Army seized thousands of muskets in various attacks on Santunbao, after Zhou Shuyuan's selection, only less than 150 muskets could be used. In other words, if the musket battalion wants to form an army, it must find a way to get at least 150 qualified muskets.

Before the flintlock rifle was developed, the qualified quality of the mesh gun was undoubtedly the only equipment available for the Musket Battalion.

Because, as long as the barrel of the convex gun is qualified, its lead range will be far greater than the arrows shot by the Tartar archers. If you really go to the battlefield, the convex gun can also suppress the Tartar archers at the range.

However, it is hard to cook without rice. Before the weapons manufacturer really grows, how could Wei Zheng take out so many qualified mesh guns in a short time?

Go out again to the Tatars to grab...

This road is definitely not working.

Since the Santunbao incident, the Tartars in Zunhua seem to be crazy and searching for their own traces. At this time, they will go out to commit crimes on the top of the mountain. Not to mention whether they can achieve the results of the battle, the Tiger and Leopard Army that finally hid themselves will definitely be exposed and further suffered bloody revenge from Dorgon.

In this case, Wei Zheng could only place his hopes on the weapons manufacturer, hoping that the reform of the weapons manufacturer could bring him some hope.

Wang Tiezhong was still as before, guarding an iron furnace without any image, and his face was so dark that it was smoked by the black smoke generated in the iron furnace.

Seeing Wei Zheng coming in a hurry, he didn't care about cleaning up and directly came out.

He reported to Wei Zheng with a difficult face: "General, the research on flintlock rifle has not made much progress... Although many old craftsmen have been added to the weapons manufacturer, these people have never seen the flintlock rifle you mentioned... After research, it will take at least half a year to get out the first flintlock rifle-like gun."

Wei Zheng waved his hand and said, "Master Wang, I am not here today for the flintlock rifle..."

"You must have heard that I formed a battalion of musketeers in the Tiger and Leopard Army. Although we seized a lot of musketeers from the Tatars, there were only less than one hundred and fifty truly qualified musketeers."

"If you want his musket battalion to be equipped with a coercine gun and to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, your weapons manufacturer must create 150 quality coercine guns as soon as possible, the faster the better... How about it, is there any problem..."

Wang Tiezhong was stunned at first, then shook his head suddenly and replied: "General, aren't you making things difficult for me?"

"Although the strength of the weapons manufacturer has been greatly expanded, the number of experienced blacksmiths has increased to ten. However, the mesh gun is not an ordinary cold weapon after all. Even if we strive to build muskets, we can only create ten qualified ones within half a month..."

Wei Zheng frowned and asked in confusion: "How is that possible? It took only a week before and after I made a clamp with you last time. And you now have ten blacksmiths with superb skills. Even if you build a clamp with one person a week, you can produce at least twenty shots in half a month. How come there are only ten shots?"

Wang Tiezhong, who quickly smiled bitterly on his face, quickly explained: "General, you should know that the most important thing in building a combroach is to create a qualified barrel. Last time we rolled it into a barrel in just one week, which was our luck... In the process of truly building a musket, the pass rate of the barrel can only reach 50% at most."

"That is to say, every time two barrels are created, one barrel will meet the requirements and can be loaded for use..."

"In this way, it would take half a month for a skilled blacksmith to build a musket on average."

"If the blacksmith's craftsmanship is not good enough and has not reached the level of skill, or even a month, he cannot create a qualified mesh rope gun. So, I said that it is the best result for us to build ten mesh rope guns in half a month."

After recalling the process of building a musket barrel that he had experienced, Wei Zheng had to admit what Wang Tiezhong said,

However, it is urgent for the troops to train you in a company. In this case, Wei Zheng had to start another way of thinking. Through the advanced knowledge and skills he knew in his mind, he transformed the musket barrel manufacturing process...

After walking into the sultry iron-striking area of ​​the manufacturing plant under Wang Tiezhong, Wei Zheng pointed to a blacksmith who was constantly beating a piece of red iron block and asked: "Master Wang, you burn the iron blocks over and over again, then beat them, and finally cool them down. Is the purpose of making the iron blocks harder? That is, the saying we often hear 'A hundred and crafts into steel'..."

Wang Tiezhong answered with approval: "Yes, General... Through constant pounding, the newly released pig iron becomes harder, and finally reaches the level of steel required to build the barrel..."

As a special forces soldier with a postgraduate degree in later generations, Wei Zheng knew very well that during the process of "six hundred temperings into steel", the series of chemical changes that occurred when pig iron turned into steel...

In general, it is a very simple chemical change: the large amount of carbon mixed in pig iron is heated and constantly beaten, and a chemical reaction with the oxygen in the air bit by bit to form carbon dioxide gas, reducing the carbon content in pig iron, and meeting the steel standard...

Since it was to make the carbon in pig iron react chemically with oxygen in the air, Wei Zheng immediately came up with a word he heard in high school chemistry class, "copy steel".

Through a refractory material, the pig iron molten iron has been continuously agitated into the liquid, and a large amount of air is poured into the liquid molten iron, forcing the carbon contained in the pig iron to undergo chemical changes with the oxygen in the air during the molten iron stage, thereby obtaining molten steel with very little carbon content.

At that time, as long as the steel water is cooled into steel ingots, you can obtain a large number of steel ingots with excellent performance by copying steel.

Although Wang Tiezhong was not clear about the chemical changes and carbon content mentioned in Wei Zheng’s explanation…

However, Wang Tiezhong still understood the entire steel copying process explained by Wei Zheng.

With excitement and expectation on his face, Wang Tiezhong directly mobilized all the blacksmiths and apprentices in the entire weapon manufacturing plant and began to build iron smelting furnaces, stir-frying steel furnaces, blowing wind blowers, and making refractory materials according to Wei Zheng's requirements-...

After a few days of suffering, a pot of pig iron that weighed 100 kilograms was put into a stir-frying steel stove under the order of Wang Tiezhong.

After the huge bellows started to operate under a slow horse, a large amount of heated air began to pour into the stir-frying furnace. Then, two blacksmiths who were fully protected by iron armor held refractory materials and began to stir continuously in pig iron iron.

One minute, two minutes...

After the reddish molten iron began to gradually darken, Wei Zheng, who felt that the time was almost the same, decisively ordered the blacksmith to stop copying steel.

Open the water outlet for the molten iron, and the red molten iron quickly flows out of the steel furnace and flows into the molds that have been made along the grooves.

Cooling, cooling down... Five small steel ingots weighing twenty kilograms finally appeared in front of everyone.

Seeing the hot gazes on Wang Tiezhong and others' faces, Wei Zheng ordered in a deep voice: "Master Wang, please let everyone test the hardness of these steel ingots immediately to see if they can meet the requirements for making musket barrels..."

"Yes, General..."

Several blacksmiths who had been waiting beside him quickly picked up the steel ingots and rushed towards the stove where they built their own muskets.

Heat, pound, and use a steel knife that has been processed to perform chopping tests...

An hour later, several blacksmiths in charge of the experiment rushed over with excitement. From the smiles on everyone's faces, Wei Zheng confirmed that the "steel-frying method" he had tested was successful.
Chapter completed!